Saints

VATICAN CITY\ -- Pope Francis called on people to replace their thirst for power with the joy of quiet and humble service, as he proclaimed four new saints, including the parents of St. Therese of Lisieux. All of Christ's disciples, especially its pastors, are called to model themselves after Jesus and "suppress our instinctive desire to exercise power over others, and instead exercise the virtue of humility."

VATICAN CITY -- Declaring four 19th-century women religious saints, Pope Francis said they are models for all Christians of how faith, nourished in prayer, is expressed concretely in acts of charity and the promotion of unity.

The new saints, proclaimed at a Mass May 17 in St. Peter's Square, included two Palestinians -- Sts. Marie-Alphonsine, founder of the Rosary Sisters, and Mary of Jesus Crucified, a Melkite Carmelite -- as well as French St. Jeanne Emilie de Villeneuve and Italian St. Maria Cristina Brando.

Advent brings to mind those opportunities of celebrating in joyful anticipation of the birth of Christ: St. Nicholas Day, the feast of the Immaculate Conception -- and the feast of St. Lucy.

A group of boys and girls celebrated St. Lucy's feast at Epiphany of Our Lord Church in south St. Louis Dec. 16 as part of their regular meeting of the Little Flowers Girls' Club and Blue Knights Boys' Club.

WASHINGTON -- The canonization cause of Archbishop Fulton Sheen has been suspended indefinitely, according to a statement issued Sept. 3 by the Diocese of Peoria, Illinois, where the archbishop was born.

The suspension was announced "with immense sadness," the diocese said. "The process to verify a possible miracle attributed to Sheen had been going extremely well, and only awaited a vote of the cardinals and the approval of the Holy Father. There was every indication that a possible date for beatification in Peoria would have been scheduled for as early as the coming year."